Random CIV Tips!

[MethanalCHO]

Give your small, random Civ4 tips here. By that, I mean like what you'd find in the Hints section in the Civilopedia or in the intro for new games/loading saved games. Preferably for Vanilla CIV.

My Civ4 Tips:

• Spearmen are a pretty poor unit that doesn't even really have much place in the game. You need Copper or Iron in order to build a Spearman. Copper is revealed at the same time the stronger Axeman unit is allowed. So you never really do have any purpose building the spearman: build an Axeman instead.
• In fact, Copper is a pretty despicable resource that doesn't even really fit in the game. Copper provides a +1 Production bonus to the square: it becomes a +4 Bonus with a mine. Iron has the same bonuses. The only units that can be built with Copper are the Spearman, Axeman, and Maceman. All of these can be built with Iron also, and Iron allows for the building of much more units. The Bronze Age in CIV is very short: only lasts for one technology.
• In the case where you have a city where you have nothing better to convert a Citizen specialist into, convert it into a Priest. A Priest supplies the same production bonus as the Citizen, along with providing a free gold unit.

Oh, and one more thing: this is a post where you give your own tips, not comment on others'. So give your own tips now!

 

[adrianj]

Give your small, random Civ4 tips here. By that, I mean like what you'd find in the Hints section in the Civilopedia or in the intro for new games/loading saved games. Preferably for Vanilla CIV.

My Civ4 Tips:

• Don't ever build spearmen: the chariot is a faster version, and the axeman is a stronger one.
• If you have nothing else to convert a Citizen specialist to, convert to a Priest: you'll get the same +1 Production, and one free commerce.

Ok, I'll bite.

The biggest tip I can offer is to read the Strategy Articles section. Also, while it might seem daunting, the Condensed Tips For Beginners thread basically sets out to achieve the same thing as this one.

As for these tips. Umm... true, spearmen aren't great, but the thing they are supposed to do they do very well - that is killing mounted units. If you're planning an axe rush vs someone with horses, you should seriously consider including some spears, or your axes will get eaten by enemy chariots. And if someone with a mounted UU is near you, you'll neglect spears at your own peril.

As for priests. The proviso here is that "if you have nothing else to convert a Citizen specialist to". If that's the case then chances are I don't have a temple either. I'll usually only assign a priest because for some reason I want to generate a Great Prophet (either to build a shrine or bulb something). Otherwise I'd probably much rather just put the citizen to work in the fields.

Edit: Apologies - I just noticed this thread is specific for Vanilla. Chariots get no bonus vs axes in vanilla, so I guess the spear is much more useless. Still, *don't ever* are strong words.

 

[Dr.Null]

Tip for Vanilla:

• Upgrade to Beyond the Sword. It's awesome.

 

[Agramon]

Concerning first post: Imagine 10 chariots against you...build a stronger Axeman ;-)

Btw I find great prophets to have very restricted use, so I'm anxious to not spoil my GP Pool with them

 

[Bezurn]

I find spearmen very effective against the AI in holding cities. Putting one or two in a city can really help when the AI has your philosophy typically by sending 4-8 mounted units and a few shock and siege units. Spears eat em up. Give them shock after your first axeman or two has died attacking an enemy stack and the AI will have a hard choice on which unit to defend. The wounded axe or the vunerable mounted unit.

Priest can be great if you are running a hammer / religious economy. Not every game has to be spam the scientists and merchants.

 

[lymond]

Give your small, random Civ4 tips here. By that, I mean like what you'd find in the Hints section in the Civilopedia or in the intro for new games/loading saved games. Preferably for Vanilla CIV.

My Civ4 Tips:

• Don't ever build spearmen: the chariot is a faster version, and the axeman is a stronger one.
• If you have nothing else to convert a Citizen specialist to, convert to a Priest: you'll get the same +1 Production, and one free commerce.

My first tip is not to give bad tips I disagree with both your points.

Each unit has it's strengths and weakness. To say never build spearmen is not good advice. Best units against mounted until jumbos. Granted, I don't build a spearmen stack of doom to take on the world, but I definitely mix some in for defense. In certain situations, you may have to build a lot of spears.

Your second point is a bit misleading. First of all, priests do not give "commerce". They give +1 gold. Also, while a priest gives +1 production, using that priest may be in lieu of working a much better tile like an improved resource, a mine, a cottage - all of which is much more beneficial than a priest. Not saying not to run priests and there's certainly situations or religion focused games where it can be made to work. I would much rather get scientists up an running asap in a city or two. (Now if you have free specialists from Merc or something and only priest slots...well sure...run a priest) Basically, while not adamantly disagreeing with this point - besides the misinformation - I think you need to provide context for a tip like this one.

 

[MethanalCHO]

Comments in bold.

My first tip is not to give bad tips I disagree with both your points. If you disagree, don't call them "bad". Just say you disagee.

Each unit has it's strengths and weakness. To say never build spearmen is not good advice. Why should you build spearmen? In CIV, a spearman is at 4/1 strength and movement. A chariot is at 4/2, and an axeman at 5/1. So why bother building a sluggish spearman when you can build a faster version? Best units against mounted until jumbos. Granted, I don't build a spearmen stack of doom to take on the world, but I definitely mix some in for defense. In certain situations, you may have to build a lot of spears.

Your second point is a bit misleading. First of all, priests do not give "commerce". They give +1 gold. Sorry, that was a typo: I mean to say "gold", but I accidentially put down "commerce". Whoops. Also, while a priest gives +1 production, using that priest may be in lieu of working a much better tile like an improved resource, a mine, a cottage - all of which is much more beneficial than a priest I said, "if there is nothing else to convert a Citizen specialist into convert to a priest. That means, if there are no other spaces to work.. Not saying not to run priests and there's certainly situations or religion focused games where it can be made to work. I would much rather get scientists up an running asap in a city or two. (Now if you have free specialists from Merc or something and only priest slots...well sure...run a priest) I said, if nothing else. Scientists are a completely legitamite alternative. Basically, while not adamantly disagreeing with this point - besides the misinformation - I think you need to provide context for a tip like this one.

 

[Dr.Null]

Comments in bold.

Civ Forum Tip:

• Don't put comments in the middle of someone else's text, it is needlessly hard to read. Learn how to quote.
• Don't get upset when people tell you you're wrong about something. There's a good chance that at least one person on here actually knows better than you about any given topic. (Maybe even more than one person!)

 

[MethanalCHO]

Dr. Null, please don't be mean to me (meanie! d: )

*added to ignore list*

 

[Dr.Null]

*added to ignore list*

That means I can continue to make fun of you (for the entertainment of the studio audience), but you will be unable to respond.

Works for me.

 

[Udey1]

I find spearmen very effective against the AI in holding cities. Putting one or two in a city can really help when the AI has your philosophy typically by sending 4-8 mounted units and a few shock and siege units. Spears eat em up. Give them shock after your first axeman or two has died attacking an enemy stack and the AI will have a hard choice on which unit to defend. The wounded axe or the vunerable mounted unit.

Priest can be great if you are running a hammer / religious economy. Not every game has to be spam the scientists and merchants.

yikes! the best advice I can give right now is ignore this post! Both of these tips are TERRIBLE.

edit: I see he has already been corrected. See above for the correction and better advice.

 

[GreenShift84]

Just because you may only have one of a certain type of resource, don't be afraid to trade it away for a better one. e.g. deer for corn (corn adds extra health with granary, deer with supermarket)

 

[iggymnrr]

I can understand the axe instead of spear in vanilla civ since chariots get no bonus against axe. Its the horse archers where spear is desirable.

 

[peapd]

Tip:

Only take advice from players who have demonstrated that they know what they're doing:

(I'm going to exclude some good names here, apologies...)

DMOC
Duckweed
U Sun
TMIT
madsci
kossin
Gumbolt
Silu
bestsss
futurehermit
Bleys
Gliese
PieceofMind
rolo
ABCF
blitz
shyuhe
VoU

(again, I typed this list off the top of the head, please others feel free to expand...)

Or, people they tend to engage with regularly and opinions they tend to respect.


p.s. most of the above is not good advice.

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

Tip:

Only take advice from players who have demonstrated that they know what they're doing:

(I'm going to exclude some good names here, apologies...)

Spoiler :

DMOC
Duckweed
U Sun
TMIT
madsci
kossin
Gumbolt
Silu
bestsss
futurehermit
Bleys
Gliese
PieceofMind
rolo
ABCF
blitz
shyuhe
VoU

(again, I typed this list off the top of the head, please others feel free to expand...)

Or, people they tend to engage with regularly and opinions they tend to respect

Nonsense. Take advice from everyone. That's where your rational faculty kicks in and you choose which advice to actually follow.

 

[MethanalCHO]

Off-Topic:

That means I can continue to make fun of you (for the entertainment of the studio audience), but you will be unable to respond.

Works for me.

1. You shouldn't make fun of people because it hurts their feelings and makes them feel bad. How would you like it if I made fun of you?
2. I can always click the "View Post" button and view and reply to your post. Like I am doing now.

On-Topic:

I decided to change the two tips so they are (hopefully) better than the previous ones. I also added a third tip.

 

[eireksten]

I decided to change the two tips so they are (hopefully) better than the previous ones. I also added a third tip.

Did you really change anything? Wording, or something?

I'm just wondering, though, since you dislike spearmen so much; Have you noticed that they get +100% strength against mounted units?

About the copper - Lets just say that I disagree with you. I won't bother arguing about it, but copper is a great resource and is important in most of my games!

The priest advice is perfectly ok, imo. The exception is if you want to avoid getting Great Prophets...

 

[r_rolo1]

@peapd

First, thanks for including me in a list like that But I have to agree with Ignorant teacher in here: hear everyone and judge for your self.

Because:
- Those people might be wrong ( I have my fair share of bad given advice and others have that as well )
- If you putted those 18 people you quoted in a room and gave them a map and only let them get out after they had agreed in how to play it to the finest detail, most likely they would die there of old age I can definitely assure that atleast I've disagreed so far with every one of the rest of the list atleast once

Now on the tips posted:

1- Spears can get defensive bonuses, so they are by definition better to defend than chariots. They have +100% vs mounted units ( making a promo less fight between a spear and a war phant a 50:50 deal ), so they are better than axes against mounted units.

2- Teching IW strainght after BW is normally a bad idea ( given that you normally need a boatload of other techs to be able to even improve your land ), so things are not as linear as being one tech away. Not mentioning, that, unlike iron, copper speeds up some wonders, projects and SS parts ...

3- That one I agree, in the condition that the real chice is between having a citizen specialist and having a priest specialist, without any other to make things more complicated. The issue is that situation is very rare...

 

[CHEESE!]

Tip:

Only take advice from players who have demonstrated that they know what they're doing:

(I'm going to exclude some good names here, apologies...)

Spoiler :

DMOC
Duckweed
U Sun
TMIT
madsci
kossin
Gumbolt
Silu
bestsss
futurehermit
Bleys
Gliese
PieceofMind
rolo
ABCF
blitz
shyuhe
VoU

(again, I typed this list off the top of the head, please others feel free to expand...)

Or, people they tend to engage with regularly and opinions they tend to respect.


p.s. most of the above is not good advice.

This is the most dangerous advice ever written.

 

[Absolute Zero]

[*]In fact, Copper is a pretty despicable resource that doesn't even really fit in the game. Copper provides a +1 Production bonus to the square: it becomes a +4 Bonus with a mine. Iron has the same bonuses. The only units that can be built with Copper are the Spearman, Axeman, and Maceman. All of these can be built with Iron also, and Iron allows for the building of much more units. The Bronze Age in CIV is very short: only lasts for one technology.

But how often do you go straight to Iron Working immediately after Bronze Working? IW is quite expensive and it's often more worth while to research cheaper techs like Sailing, AH, Writing, Pottery (if you haven't already).

I really don't think Copper is a "despicable" resource. +4 hammers is pretty good; what's wrong with that? Sure it may be worse than Iron, but that doesn't mean it's bad overall.

Regarding the Spearman, I think it's a bad unit because it's a defensive unit, and I (and most human players against AI) attack far more often than defend (especially on lower levels, which I play). And on the rare occasion that defense against a mounted unit is needed, an Archer does the job just fine.